A Pig Geneticist at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan, Dr Olufunke Oluwole says pig rearing can be a money spinning business for farmers if properly developed.
Oluwole, a Senior Research Fellow who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Ibadan, noted that the industry could also be a money spinner for Nigeria.
According to her, pig is one of the most prolific domestic animals as it can produce between four to 18 piglets compared to one or two in cattle, sheep and goat.
“It has high feed conversion efficiency, matures early and thereby has short generation interval, it requires small space to start for small scale production.
“It could be started with moderate capital on small-scale production and it could also be reared on large-scale with huge capital, the management practices are simple as it could be managed effectively on small-scale by members of the family.
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“The droppings or faeces can be used as manure to improve soil fertility for vegetables; the meat is delicious, soft, tasty and palatable. It’s equally important for agro-based industries for production of bone meal, blood meal, cooking fat, cosmetics and bristles.
“Pig can be fed with various household wastes such as plantain peel, yam peel, remnant feeds. It’s very hardy and not easily infected with disease.
“Under intensive system of management and proper hygiene, rearing of pig doesn’t constitute nuisance to the environment,” she said.
Oluwole noted that the major problem of pig rearing was the detection of estrus or heat as most farmers or farm attendants were not familiar with their pigs and don’t notice when infected with estrus.
She listed signs of estrus to include redness and swelling of vulva, vagina discharge, mounting of other pigs, restlessness/nervousness, erect ears and reflex.
“The estrus can be stimulated by smell of boar spray, extra light, sound or exposure to boar for eye contact with the boar, and change of sow’s pen.
“The estrus can also be stimulated by flushing of sows for egg cell production, giving sugar or molasses 24 hours before insemination to give them energy and increase of protein intake for more egg production.’’
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Oluwole said to improve pig production in Nigeria, government, stakeholders and farmers needed to solve the problems being faced by farmers in terms of unavailable imported pure line of exotic breed, and unavailable feed.
Other problems she noted includes farmers’ non exposure to new modern technologies, low industrial companies to sell their products to for processing and marketing, loan unavailability, and diseases occurrence among others.
She, therefore, urged the government to reduce importation tax on livestock for farmers and make the raw materials for production of livestock feed available, reduce the price to make it easy and cheaper for farmers to buy.
“Many farmers need to be exposed to modern technologies in rearing pigs such as artificial insemination, estrus and pregnancy detection.
“This can be done by the stakeholders training the farmers and taking the technologies from the research institutes to them.
“Loans or incentives should be available for farmers by the government to obtain credit facilities and purchase input such as feed and drugs for their pig farming.
“There should be establishment of pig product processing industry that will encourage more farmers to go into pig production, proper bio-security practices on the farm and training of farmers on health and diseases prevention.’’ (NAN)